Imagine being tipped off about a house needing an exorcism, and after you ask the electrician to step outside you look out the window to see him uprooting a whole damn tree with his car.

this section of tma really is just "[spends 20 minutes reading a ghost story submitted to the Council For Handling Ghosts] anyways all of that was stupid and boring and it was a FAKE ghost. not like the REAL ghosts im supposed to studying. im jonathan sims and i fucking HATE gertrude"

everytime any of the people call an ambulance I freak out thinking about the large medical bill, forgetting that this is in europe rather than the usa

jon’s blatant sarcasm and unbelieving at the end of each recording is always the cherry on the cake

Sometimes I forget Jonathan is also the one who reads the statements cuz there’s so much difference in tone between his comments after and him while reading the statement

Even with just the text, it's obvious that this guy is in Europe because 1) He called for an ambulance instead of attempting to drive, and 2) The ambulance arrived quickly

Why doesn’t Jonathan believe it lmao she was found!!! Next to a severed hand!!! On the same day!!! Jonathan could watch a murder happen before his eyes and not believe it happened cause he was the only witness

In Ep.3 we know that Graham had a "Grooved/Spiral" pattern on his table, with an empty square in the middle where something was supposed to be. The box has a simiral "Grooved/Spiral" pattern, was the box supposed to be there? How did it get here? I am very excited to find out, and this video made me sub. Gud job m8.

19:50-20:04 Wait. Is that the missing piece of the table from episode 2 (or 3)? Edit: I love how people in the comments are more hung up over Ivo calling an ambulance. I guess the only thing scarier than these stories is the American economy.

So I just discovered this podcast thanks to Overly Sarcastic Productions. Just before listening to this episode, I made myself something to eat and ... let it burn in the oven. Listening to a few other episodes before, taking a burnt pizza out of the oven only to watch my screen and see the words "burned out" on it startled me quite a bit

character: *calls ambulance* me: no the bill!! why aren't they worried about the bill!? narrator: "the ambulance arrived quickly..." me: oh right we're not in the US

I like the idea that the tree was a red herring and our MC here was just suffering from panic-induced hallucinations while the Exorcism did the actual job. Granted, with the way the supernatural in this story is going, the exorcism could have been bullshit and the tree brutality did the job. Or BOTH were needed to clear the house fully.

God I love the absolute vitriol that drips from the narrators voice, his distant for the archivist that worked before hm and how he cast the darkest of shadows on the written down cases

4:02 Was the unassuming man in the tan coat by any chance carrying a deer skin briefcase?

His " work" was his obsession with fractals Uzumaki vibes on full engine

Having finished TMA, I'm now going back to relisten with the benefit of hindsight, and uh "You'll know him when you see him. All the bones are in his hands." ...oh. Oh dear. Well that certainly explains the fractals.

I like it how everyone can agree that hospital bills are more scarier than a bleeding tree, a burned remains of a man, and a weird box of unusual stuff.

Was listening to this and all our fire alarms went off at once even though there's nothing burning, am frighten

Re-listening for the i-don't-knowth time. Just.. just clicked that the statement writer's dad with schizophrenia... He was freaking out about a man, and said "You will know him by all the bones in his hands." ..... Friggen heck I didn't even realize they were introducing Michael this early. Man this one has alot of the fears. Maybe all of them?

Im loving all of them

I'm not too sure what the meaning of Agnes'(?) supposed actions are here, I wonder if more will be explained later on. But from what I know Apples are symbolic for the soul in some cultures, apple trees are also well known for having been used to make coffins so there could be some meaning there, also the right hand is the hand used for blessings so maybe that's why it was cut due to the religious context here. The bleeding tree with the weird shape could always be a Dracaena or any other number of freaky looking plants that grow tall and have red sap. Of course this is just me trying to find an explanation but I'm sure its all wrong.

a man with bones in his hands, huh?

wow, this episode was a LOT. we've got: ghosts, schizophrenia, creepy children, house fires, catholic priests preforming exorcisms, bleeding trees(??), and apples full of spiders(????). i don't really know what to make of all this, other than that the hilltop road house seems to be a fucked up place. the talk about schizophrenia reminded me a bit of a game called night in the woods, where the main character is dealing with unspecified and mostly untreated mental illness AND is experiencing explicitly supernatural phenomena. the narrative treats both seriously and doesn't use one to explain the other, even though some of the characters try to. i'm pretty certain that here, as real as the story teller's father's condition was, the man with all his bones in his hands was equally real. that said, i like that the story teller talked about getting tested for early signs of schizophrenia as a common sense reaction to seeing spooky shit. it's like checking the co2 levels of a supposedly haunted house: practical and potentially life saving. the closing notes in this episode are pretty wild too. what do the discrepancies in agnes' age mean? what did killing the tree have to do with her death? why did she have what was clearly raymond fielding''s hand on a chain wrapped around her waist and why did tissue decay indicate that they'd died at the same time?? i'm glad the narrator mentioned that the priest made a statement about this incident, because i'm looking forward to some answers.

That bit about the hand at the end really made my skin crawl.

“Destroying this tree was the only choice” NO SIS LEAVE TF

I love going back and relistening. This episode is a sort of smaller one, I guess you could say. Nothing crazy at first "look". But with the knowledge of the rest of the series/lore? Hoo BOY do we have a lot here.

The Flame, Spider, and Spiral all in an episode this early? Amazing!

SPOILERS FOR WAY LATER IN THE SEASON Waaaait wait wait did we just get our first mention of Michael? You can't tell me Lensik's dad wasn't slashed open by an avatar of the sprial... the unidentified sharp object, the obssession with spirals and fractals, "all the bones in his hands"??? Relistening is SO. FREAKING.COOL. Gdi Jonny Sims...

This shouldn’t be spoilers but be advised I’ve listened to half of what’s out so far. Going back to listen to The older episodes is really in-lighting (pun intended). Johnny’s writing still amazes me he managed to get so manny small details in this one episode. even things that you don’t notice or even remember until you go back. Like the fractals!? God I hope we get a follow up on this family later.

I like that the stories are connected, but at the same time, it feels like it's all just one long story about the same human-looking creatures or whatever, instead of a bunch of connected supernatural events.

Wow, there was a lot to unpack in this episode, from fractal-obsessed relatives to apples with all the spiders surging from them.

I find it funny all the U.S viewers are shocked about the ambulance

(i'm like 4 years late to this but) does anyone else notice that a lot of these stories take place in november/winter? like i've noticed them mention it throughout most if not all of the episodes so far

Was the tree Agnes? Or was Agnes the tree?

Alright, I'm hooked on these. Great to listen to while I draw!! And they really satisfy my love for scary stories. :D

I’m on a binge. Can’t Stop Listening

"all the bones are in his hands" oh hi Micheal

Oh man, these are so amazing! I'm going through them one by one and just having so much fun, thank you for writing these!

Wonder why the box seems a lot like the table from early on 👀

This is the first one where I'm like "What?" I wasn't expecting Agnes to just be living someplace else and the meaning of the missing hand is confusing.

I'm relistening to this and I totally forgot the Distortion showed up this early.

I'm so glad that he speaks normally, unlike those sleep podcasts, which pause for 4 seconds EVERY WORD

cw: spoilers for later seasons . . . . . . . Doing my first re-listen and the sheer amount of entities present in just this episode is absolutely ASTONISHING. We have the Desolation, the Web, THE MCFUCKING SPIRAL OF ALL THINGS! GOOD FUCKING LORD! You could even make a tie to the Stranger with the appearance of the box that fits into the table that keeps the Not!Them at bay! HOLY SHIT!

I’ve just started listening to these and I love noticing little recurring themes- convenient ways of possibly putting aside the story altogether bc of some medical circumstance (like schizophrenia, drunk, concussed, drugged, etc...), or unassuming or seemingly normal people. I’m loving these so much

No one: The archivist: *shit posts coworkers*

First time listener here. Not only am I sure the wooden box is the table's (from Ep 3) missing piece, but that the creature that took over the guys life is related to Agnes in some way. I did not think of the box; got it from the comments.

Did we ever get that follow-up of the priest’s account?

i am more alarmed about the fact that he knew what the smell of burning human hair is

SPOILERS "All the bones are in his hands" WELL WOULD U LOOK AT THAT HELLO SPIRAL DISTORTION

I don't know for sure, but I think Agnes is a latin word for burn or fire. Or ignis, something like that.

What I’m getting from this is that the apple thing and the disappearances were a spell or deal of immortality for Agnis or something and when he uprooted the tree it broke it. I kinda got the same vibes as when Wilfred died as soon as the war ended last episode 👀

I am puzzled by the fact that Jonathan seems to follow a pattern which dictates, upon the end of each statement, that he first dismiss the events as figments of imagination, then proceed to providing what I always find to be the most disturbing part of the episode: facts that could either be seen as proof that the statement was, in fact, truthful, or as a huge fucking coincidence. You’d think that Jonathan would be at least a little bit more flexible in trusting the statements after finding further information which corroborates them… I wonder whether this pattern has an explanation to be given later or whether it’s just an aspect of Jonathan’s personality, and underlining of just how deep his skepticism runs. Can’t wait to find out :) Edit *contains spoilers*: After listening to episode 39, I guess I got an answer-Jon’s skepticism is a way for him to deal with the fear, or possibly to deal with anything that might act as soon as it knows that Jon isn’t as skeptic as he seems (though I guess this defence mechanism hasn’t done him that much good… idk). I think it’s a very interesting concept, and it definitely makes me see Jon’s character in a different light. Idk if it made me love him more than before, because I already really loved him, but perhaps it did. Now I’ll go straight back to listen to episode 40, because the ending of 39 was… a harrowing experience, to say the least. Edit 2: I just reread this and I simply wanted to say-I find it so funny that I called him “Jonathan” in the original comment 💀 I haven’t heard him be referred to as “Jonathan” in what feels like forever, it was incredibly weird to read xD.

Fractals? Like the Lichtenberg figure?

Sounds like spontaneous human combustion! Very spooky.

As the title said I immediately thought of and sang the line "We'll burn the monster out" from Alice in Wonderland and having finished the episode I find it fitting

after finishing the series this episode has a different meaning

16:38 I tried to scream but my head was underwater

That nurse was the MVP

you've heard of crabapples, now get ready for spiderapples

pov; you are just starting TMA and keep getting fractals and the Lichtenburg figure mixed up.

So far there is a running theme of head injury or human mind tricks playing into the skepticism of the authenticity of each story.

''I don’t know why, but at that moment I felt an intense, maddening anger at that tree. '' That's so funny for no reason

This one really creeped me out.

Okay, something that I really love is the system set up for something as I am not a first time listener, but trying to catch up to the point I left off! Spoilers ahead! I am starting to take my own notes and I noticed something odd as I was letting other episodes play out. My system for notes is the name of the episode, date, case number, entity, and the names mentioned. These are all important to me as I can set a chronological order of events. For the case number of this particular episode, as I wanted to test something out, and I don't quite recall if Tim mentioned in the future episode we finally meet him, is incorrect. It should be 0071303, but is marked 0071304, meaning it the date would be in April. Don't get me wrong. The attention to detail within this series is phenomenal. So so so many details and things to unpack! I adore it!

MINOR SPOILER I was going to say that this guy might be one of the smartest and most effective people to ever come into contact with the powers. The way he just immediately got sick of the bullshit he was in and decided to start destroying things seemed like a really lucky saving grace. But now that we know the grand significance of that house and how many different powers interacted with it, i wonder if The Slaughter had some hand in his sudden decision to attack that very important tree

"an apple that shriveled and burst into spiders that spread out all over" Well... if that isn't the most ominous foreshadowing

SPOILER-WARNING (If you truly are new to this after so long, then let me welcome you and wish you wonderfully frughtening stay! Just in case I'll try to keep a Spoiler-free wording) My knowledge of the world here is... sporadic, I know greater thruths and reveals already but only ever bits of the inbetween so I am in a way still quite new, just not as confused or surpised. As such, I am aware of the "powers" and slightly perplexed which of them were all at play here and what their roles were. "Fire" seemed to be Agnes' ally; whatever had prolonger her life also affected the hand which had scorch-marks, so did Fielding's spectre and the tree that was in some way connected to her longevity, furthermore she apparently burned down the house without being damaged herself. The Tree itself bleed, slightly unusual given how fire scorches and cauterises, perhaps "War" or "Flesh" were involved? The latter would fit extended life-spans and maintained youth. If the Tree itself wasn't the "anchor" for whatever magic she used, then it must have been that box. Despite having been buried, I somehow doubt the "Deep" had something to do with it. In the same vein, I doubt that Mr. Lensik's sudden rage at the tree had anything to do with "War". Much more interesting is the fact it has the same pattern as and obviously belonged to the Table which we know had been linked/"blessed" by the "Spiral". But in doing so, the table had also been linked with the "Unknown" due to the entity it bound. And the sudden decay of the apple, a clear symbolic representation of Agnes' magic having been broken so now her time was catching up with her just as it did with the fruit. Though I'm not sure if it's just symbolism or if the "Hive" has something to do with it. And those spiders that crawled out... who was pulling the strings here really?

I keep making the horrible choice of putting these episodes on while I fall asleep. I can't even go to the freaking bathroom anymore without checking my surroundings. 😭

They feed the boys to the tree!!!!!!!

"Hilltop road" is such a funny name to me for some reason

the thing about fractals reminded me of uzumaki and shuichis father and how he was so obsessed with spirals and ended up killing himself

Relistening to the series and realizing that Lensiks father was killed by Michael

when youre listening to this story on mid-november and it’s a heavy storm outside 😹 getting into those vibes right now..

I've only just found these today but I'm loving it!!

Listening to it at 3am just hits different

I’d love to hear the story about how The Headless Horseman’s Tree got there. It’s probably interesting. Plus it comes with Christopher Walken and Miranda Richardson.

Guys we get it ambulances are expensive in the US lol

anyone else relistening to this after 194 to remember the lore

Loving this series! Thanks for such great, creepy stories!

SPOILERS - SORT OF: Now that I've finished season 2 and am relistening to this episode Im a little shocked and sort of devastated since I do miss Jon's sassiness and dismissive attitude after the statements, his following recordings are... borderline insane.

The detail about the tree and the spiders reminds me of the MR James story The Ash Tree

*Me hearing Hilltop Road*: THAT'S WHERE I HEARD IT FROM 0o0

So I was about to eat an apple I dont think i want it anymore XD

I have to ask, was the unassuming man in the tan coat holding a deer-skin suitcase? He very well might've been a fly salesman you know. Probably there from King City

i swear to god that hallucination figure ivo's father saw was michael

That damn tree, what is it's secret!!

I'm now on my 8th listen, and am still not quite sure of what the tree has to do with Agnes.

The way my heart clenched when he said he called an ambulance. I had to pause it for a moment to remember that this is in the UK not here in the USA, I was so shocked. Honestly, the casual ambulance call shocked me more than the spider apple, or anything else here

The tree is bleeding what the Hell!?!? 👀

This is my second time through The Magnus Archive. The first time, I had never experienced the delusions and psychosis of schizophrenia. Now I have. This is a relatively respectful depiction of a psychological diagnosis that *scares me to my core* and has changed my life. This was probably my least favorite episode the first time though because it felt *boring*. Now it’s probably my least favorite because it’s just *real*.

2nd x around makes so much more sense lol

I love watching this and one of the ads just absolutely glitching out and sounding like satan

all fun and games until its set wherE I LIVE

Wait a second. Doesn't health insurance cover the ambulance? It did when my husband needed an ambulance here in Michigan, USA. And it was about $700 for a two-mile trip, covered 100% by his health insurance from work. We didn't want to take any chances because a year prior, I drove him to the hospital. He was having a heart attack and insisted no ambulance. He had a seizure on the way there and arrived at the emergency room with no pulse. The ER staff saved him, praise God. So the second time he needed to go to the ER, we took no chances and I remembered distinctly, the ambulance was covered. Please -- check with your health insurance now if the ambulance rates are astronomical in your area, as other Americans have commented. Your life is worth more than the money. And if you don't have insurance and you end up with a big bill, get on a payment plan and pay it down monthly, which I'm also familiar with, since insurance doesn't cover everything. Wishing you blessings and safety and informed decisions. : )

Is it normal to get scury after listening to this?

My guess as someone who has just started the series would be that the apple under the tree somehow guaranteed Agnes a long life or something

Okay, this is dumb, but why do I continuously think the narrator's name is Johhny Sins?

Are any of these actually explained? Or do they just get left as complete, LSD style mysteries?

Desolation

That man is the smartest victim yet.